OpenAI’s video generating app, Sora surged to one million downloads in under five days after its launch, surpassing the initial milestone achieved by its predecessor, ChatGPT, according to company statements and market data.
According to the data, Sora has experienced a bigger first week on the iOS compared to ChatGPT, which debuted in November 2022 to immediate success, which spurred a wave of generative AI developments across the globe. Market data shows that Sora saw 627,000 downloads on iOS during its first seven days of availability while ChatGPT recorded 606,000 downloads in its first week.
Sora rises to first position on App Store
Although access to Sora is still currently limited and on an invite only basis compared to ChatGPT’s public rollout, the App experienced a significant jump to number one position on the App Store, reflecting a strong appetite for video generating technology on the market.
OpenAI’s head of Sora, Bill Peebles explained this milestone in a post on X.
“Sora hit 1M app downloads in<5 days, even faster than chatgpt did (despite the invite flow and only targeting north america!)! Team working hard to keep up with surging growth. more features and fixes to overmoderation on the way!”
Sora is currently available in the US and Canada on iOS and started its sky-rocketing on its first day, which is 30 September. According to TechCrunch, data from app intelligence provider Appfigures shows that it quickly rose to occupy third position on the US App Store with 56,000 installs.
By October 3, it had jumped to occupy the first position, as its fast adoption put it ahead of other AI models’ launches like Microsoft’s Copilot and Anthropic’s Claude.
Although ChatGPT was only available in the US, data from Appfigures show that Canada accounted for 45,000 of the video-generating app initial installs. According to TechCrunch, this reflects that even on US only basis, its launch was almost at par with ChatGPT, highlighting the strong demand.
Sora receives mixed reactions form the market
Responding to Peebles’ post, some enthusiasts had mixed feelings about the app. Others commended OpenAI for the app, explaining how they “absolutely love Sora 2.” One user remarked that while the app experienced “incredible growth,” they were waiting to see how the team would “address the moderation balance.”
“The fact it outpaced ChatGPT even with geographic restrictions speaks volumes about demand for accessible video generation,” said one user identified as Timur Kiselchuck.
Others feel it still leaves a lot to be desired calling for the team to “make it less complex,” as it is still “really very messy, crowded with many features right now.”
Already, Sora’s impact is being felt across social media platforms. Videos created using the new Sora 2 model are flooding social media, captivating users, as well as igniting debates as the model can easily create realistic deepfakes. This comes as users have also resorted to creating deepfake videos even of dead people.
Zelda Williams, the late Robin William’s daughter is one individual concerned by the controversial use of the technology. She publicly asked people to stop sending her AI generated videos of her late father, stressing the complex ethical questions around the technology.
Appfigures data shows that Sora has maintained a strong momentum since its peak of 107,800 daily downloads achieved on October 1. The data also shows that daily installs have stabilized to a range between 84,400 and 98,500, which still remains high for an app that is still not available publicly, which according to TechCrunch shows OpenAI’s huge success in its venture into consumer AI.
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